Manufacturing Executive and Philanthropist

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David Bohn, a Redding, CT, executive, heads Preferred Utilities Manufacturing Corporation, a firm that provides coordinated power plant equipment manufacturing and engineering services. David Bohn and his team in Redding, CT, are experienced in enabling industrial and residential facilities to meet federal, state, and municipal mandates related to emissions and energy efficiency.

One of Preferred Utilities’ success stories involved the installation of a low-emissions, high-efficiency API Inject-Aire burner within the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) Stapleton Houses. This innovative system brought a solution uniquely capable of meeting strict carbon footprint reduction mandates outlined in New York City Local Law 87.

The burners have the capacity to decrease electricity consumption by up to 85 percent, compared with previous generation burners. The pre-purge and post-purge cycles associated with such burners have been reduced by more than half, with systemwide thermal shock wear and tear decreased a corresponding amount.

A distinct advantage of Preferred Utilities’ low-emissions technology is that it enables facilities to quickly and cost effectively upgrade to ultralow-emissions technologies as they come online. More opportunities for replacement exist, as a number of the company’s burners approach 50 years of service within the NYCHA and New York City Board of Education.

David Bohn is a Redding, CT-based business leader with a wealth of experience in the industrial heating industry. For the past 22 years, he has served as president of the Preferred Utilities Manufacturing Corporation. David Bohn holds active membership in several professional associations including ASHRAE (originally the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers).

ASHRAE has advocated for sustainable technology within the built environment for more than 130 years. One of its many programs is Building Energy Quotient (Building EQ) quick energy analysis.

Building EQ is designed to benchmark a building’s overall energy performance to maximize efficiency and promote environmental health. To complete analysis on each building, the program uses both As Designed and In Operation evaluations. The As Designed evaluation looks at the building’s physical characteristics and systems, while the In Operation assessment looks at actual building energy use. As part of the In Operation evaluation, Building EQ performs a Level 1 Energy Audit to identify low-cost, no-cost, and other energy-efficient measures that can boost the building’s overall energy performance.

Since 1995, David Bohn of Redding, CT, has served as president of Preferred Utilities Manufacturing Corporation. Outside of this role, David Bohn contributes to numerous charitable organizations, including the Children’s Educational Opportunity (CEO) Fund of Connecticut.

Founded in 1995, CEO seeks to give students with limited resources the opportunity to attend private elementary schools. Each year, the organization distributes $800,000 in scholarships to 400 students. Since its inception, CEO has offered more than 8,400 scholarships worth more than $17 million.

The scholarships provided by CEO have the potential to make a long-term impact, as students in private school perform higher on standardized tests and are more likely to finish high school, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s report titled Private Schools: A Brief Portrait. Further, private school students from low-income households are nearly four times more likely to attend college than their peers in public schools. CEO hopes to give these students an equal opportunity to excel academically and graduate from college.

As the president of Preferred Utilities Manufacturing Corporation, Redding, CT-based industrial equipment professional David Bohn led the fuel oil and boiler equipment manufacturer to a 380 percent increase in annual corporate revenue. In addition to his administrative accomplishments, David Bohn has expertise in multiple technical areas including the prevention of dry firing in boilers.

A big problem in the boiler industry, dry firing occurs when something interferes with the regular supply of boiler feedwater. If the boiler runs out of water, and safety features fail to engage, steam pressure will soon drop to zero. Although the true cause of this drop is a complete lack of boiling water (and, therefore, steam), the boiler will automatically attempt to make up for the lack of steam pressure by increasing internal temperature. Within minutes, high temperatures can irreparably damage the boiler due to a phenomenon called metal creep.

Boiler owners and/or operators can reduce the risk of dry firing by ensuring that advanced safety controls are set to trip the boiler offline when water supply is interrupted. They can also prevent dry firing by installing header-pressure transmitters on variable-speed-drive pumps, monitoring stack temperature closely, and performing regular automated low-water cutout tests.